Sweet Home Alabama: The South Transformed

March 22, 1986|By Anthony Lewis, New York Times

TUSCALOOSA, ALA. — Justice Hugo L. Black of the U.S. Supreme Court was speaking, 25 years ago, to law students at Harvard. Some of them were from Alabama, his home state, and he said he hoped they would go back. Alabama is ''a good place,'' he said, ''even though you'll find there, as in every state of the Union, men and women who are not tolerant, who are not gentle and kind.''

What powerful emotions those words concealed. Hugo Black loved Alabama and the South. But he was a pariah there at the time, denounced as a radical and a traitor for his part in the school segregation decision and others. His own son had left Birmingham because of the hostility. Black minded deeply, but he maintained a serene confidence in the ultimate goodness of his people.

Hugo Black's vision of the South, and of justice, was vindicated here over the last few days in an extraordinary way. The University of Alabama Law School celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth, and the occasion was a symbol of the New South.

''If the South is to rise again,'' university president Joab Thomas said, ''this is the form it should take.''

The justices of the Alabama Supreme Court were here -- not a surprising fact, I suppose, unless you know a little history. Not so long ago that court was a stalwart of segregation, and hidebound in other doctrines. Today it is respected as a forward-looking state court.

Down the street from where the meetings of the Black centennial took place was the building where Gov. George Wallace, in 1963, played out his charade of resistance to desegregation of the university. He told Nicholas Katzenbach, the deputy attorney general, that he would not let two black students enter. They did enter.

Today all that seems like another world, another country. There are black students here, and blacks in the political world of Alabama. Wallace is governor again, eager for black votes. At Black's 100th birthday his Alabama was proof of the astonishing, the revolutionary transformation of the South.

But of course Black did not just believe in the South. He believed in the United States. He was a fervent patriot, who always thought Americans could solve their problems if they held tight to the values of their freedom. He thought democracy could work only if the rights of individuals to think and speak as they wish were inviolate.

No judge in modern American history had so great an influence. In his 34 years on the bench the Supreme Court moved far toward his views on applying the Bill of Rights to the states, on enforcing equality in voting districts, on protecting freedom of speech and press.

The secret of his influence, I believe, was the same serenity that he showed when the South resisted -- the same tenacious confidence in the ultimate triumph of right. There were bad times. The court bent to McCarthyism, sanctioning repression and government by fear. But Black did not despair.

''There is hope,'' he said, dissenting when the court upheld the conviction of Communist Party leaders in 1951, ''that in calmer times, when present pressures, passions and fears subside, this or some later court will restore the First Amendment liberties to the high preferred place where they belong in a free society.''

The amazing thing about Black as a person was that he lived what he preached about free speech. He was criticized as bitterly as anyone in public life, but he never tried to stifle the critics. Indeed, he praised their sincerity while he argued with them.

There was a special feeling at this celebration, I thought, because we are living through another scoundrel time now. Once again politicians are making belief in their policies and their lies the test of patriotism. Once again we are told that the end justifies the means. Once again we need the voice of a believer in freedom and justice to recall us to the vision of America.

''I trust the American people myself,'' Black told those students 25 years ago. ''I congratulate you, all of you, I wish I were in your place. I can tell you from experience that it's a great world. Here's hope and strength and love to those who give hope and strength and love.''